Celtic warm-up for Barcelona test with stroll at St Mirren

Celtic can claim parity with Barcelona in one respect ahead of Tuesday night’s
Champions League encounter in the Nou Camp. Both teams scored five goals
away from home on Saturday for victories which ensured that each would lead
their respective league tables.

Now the question is how far Celtic can stay in step when the pair meet in a Group G fixture that sees both sides bring unbeaten European sequences to the party. It is a perpetual challenge to identify grounds for optimism ahead of a trip to Catalonia – although when Neil Lennon was a Celtic player he experienced two draws there – but he may draw modest encouragement from the fact that Barca conceded four goals to Deportivo La Coruna.

Tito Vilanova’s side prevailed, greatly aided by a Lionel Messi hat-trick – the Argentinian’s 15th in La Liga and his 21st for the club – before he dashed off to hospital to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. Lennon was in attendance to witness Messi’s scoring feat, having flown to Spain on Dermot Desmond’s private plane after Celtic’s demolition of St Mirren.

A Barca spy also monitored events in Paisley but was surely struck as much by St Mirren’s taste for self-destruction as Celtic’s performance. The occasion was over as a contest midway through the first half, by which stage Gary Hooper had snatched his obligatory goal and Efe Ambrose netted his first for the club.

Victor Wanyama’s subsequent double raised questions about how committed Celtic would be after the break, but although Saints were more cohesive in the second half, they could easily have conceded another three instead of the single goal – a fine header by Tony Watt – which was added in the closing minutes.

St Mirren were so feeble that it is tricky to make assumptions about exactly how good Celtic were, but Lennon’s players displayed the sort of belief that suggests they will not be too distracted by the quotidian business of retaining their domestic title.

They were without Scott Brown, Kris Commons and James Forrest for Saturday’s demolition job, although Lennon would certainly welcome any of those three being available tomorrow. Beram Kayal, making his first start since the similarly one-sided victory over Raith Rovers in the Scottish Communities League Cup on Sept 25, was willing to contemplate the shift in standard which will be required in the Nou Camp.

“It was my first game after injury and I’m happy to come back and play 90 minutes in a good win after the international break,” said the midfielder.

“It was a good performance and result for us. We controlled the game. It’s not easy to win 5-0, but we made the game easy for ourselves. All of the players did their jobs very well.

”It is going to be a different game in Barcelona. The Champions League is totally different. But we are looking forward to the next game and we will also do the job in the Nou Camp.

“We always prepare to be professional, we are always looking to the next game. As soon as the St Mirren game was finished, we immediately started to prepare for Barcelona.

”We always believe we can do something in every game. The team has a lot of confidence now. Barcelona are the best team in the world but we are going there believing we can do something.” The mention of Barca’s playmaker-in-chief evoked a touch of gallows humour from Kayal. “How do you play against Messi? I think 11 players will go to mark him,” was his wry response. “But seriously, we are not playing just against Messi, Xavi or Iniesta.

“We are playing against the best team in Europe and the world. They are going to have control of the game and it will be hard but we are going to try to do the maximum we can and our manager will prepare us tactically. We will all do our job.

”I played in the Champions League for Maccabi Haifa three years ago against Bayern Munich, Juventus and Bordeaux. I’ve never played against Barcelona. We played a friendly against Real Madrid earlier this season but it’s totally different when you play a team like that in the Champions League.

“We want to keep our good position in the group. After the draw at home to Benfica and win in Moscow, it will be good for us if we can continue by doing something in Barcelona. We believe we can qualify from the group, of course we do. We have a lot of confidence now and the result in Moscow proved we can do something in the Champions League.”

Meanwhile, the former Barca and Rangers full-back Giovanni van Bronckhorst – a former Champions League winner with the Catalan side in 2006 – attributed their perfect start in Group G to the appointment of Vilanova. “I think it’s very important,” Van Bronckhorst said.

“First of all he’s a coach who knows the Barca style. Sometimes as a player you have to switch methods but, of course, everyone knew him. He was almost the same as Guardiola.

“The start of the group campaign has been good – six points out of two games – although the first game was not easy against Spartak. It couldn’t be better for Barcelona.”